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I have several Linux systems in my home lab; some are desktops and some are servers. Ninety-nine percent of the time, those machines work flawlessly. When that one percent happens, any machine that goes south needs help.

One way to help is through a small software package called Watchdog. This software runs various checks to determine whether the hardware has "locked up." If it detects that it has happened, it will reboot the machine.

There are two types of Watchdogs: software and hardware. The hardware Watchdog is much more reliable, but it requires specialized hardware to work. The software Watchdog isn't quite as reliable, but it works on most Linux systems.